making a cutting board

[atgcpaul]

Cross-posted on another forum, too:

I've decided I want to make end grain cutting boards as Christmas gifts this year. Having never made one before, what do those of you with experience consider to be the most important step(s) to making them successfully? Maybe making sure that everything in one course is the same thickness before they are flipped and glued?

I plan on using walnut (have a whole lot of 8/4 to use up, maybe I'll toss in a course of 4/4 here and there) and don't plan on doing any intricate patterns--maybe just gluing up the blanks and shifting each row by half. I may put a radius on the corners and edges, and route handle grips into the ends. Do you like adding a juice groove? If so, do you prefer to do this to both sides or just one side?

I don't have a jointer, just a planer to at least get the rough boards smooth. I also have a drum sander for final sanding after glueup.

Thanks,
Paul

[phrog]

Hey Paul,
I have no experience in making cutting boards. But I do have a friend who loves to cook and he tells me that Boos Cutting Boards are the Rolls Royce of cutting boards. (They're used by many famous chefs.)

Here is a link to the boards on the John Boos website. Note that there are 9 pages of boards. (You have to manually change the page number at the top of each page.) They might give you some ideas.

http://www.johnboos.com/product_grou...=r&grp=JBC0051

Here is a link to a program that you might find useful:
http://www.lastalias.com/cbdesigner/

[Bill in Buena Park]

Paul,
I haven't made one yet, but recall seeing past threads with useful information. Here are a few I found through a search on "end grain cutting board" -

http://www.bt3central.com/showthread...+cutting+board

http://www.bt3central.com/showthread...+cutting+board

http://www.bt3central.com/showthread...+cutting+board

http://www.bt3central.com/showthread...+cutting+board

http://www.bt3central.com/showthread...mfer+end+grain

[Sparky2002]

I did the standard one end grain board found on the Wood Whisperer site. I used purpleheart and soft maple. I ended up making three at once. No juice grooves and handles cut in. Both to the lower the weight and firmer grip by the user.

My lesson learned. You need good blades. The woods I used were very hard. Burn marks show in the prupleheart easy. Glue-ups need to flat. Mine moved of the end grain flip. I ended up using router skis due to the surface, it was very bad. Be glad you have a drum sander.

I used food grade finish from Woodcraft and I let it just soak in. Of the three my wife uses hers the most and after 4 years it could use a finish touch up in a few spots. The wood still looks good. I'll see if I can finds some photos somewhere.

[atgcpaul]

Hey Paul,

Here is a link to the boards on the John Boos website. Note that there are 9 pages of boards. (You have to manually change the page number at the top of each page.) They might give you some ideas.

http://www.johnboos.com/product_grou...=r&grp=JBC0051

Here is a link to a program that you might find useful:
http://www.lastalias.com/cbdesigner/

Paul,
I haven't made one yet, but recall seeing past threads with useful information. Here are a few I found through a search on "end grain cutting board" -

http://www.bt3central.com/showthread...+cutting+board

http://www.bt3central.com/showthread...+cutting+board

http://www.bt3central.com/showthread...+cutting+board

http://www.bt3central.com/showthread...+cutting+board

http://www.bt3central.com/showthread...mfer+end+grain

Thanks for the links. It's good to see for ideas. Crazy how much they can charge for a cutting board! I guess when I actually make one, I'll know how much work is involved.